Time Line

The horror movie "The Giant Gila Monster" was released using the same
logo lettering used for the Samhain and Danzig logos.

__/__/1961

Al Pike was born in New York, NY.

02/06/1963

Peter "Damien" Marshall was born in Rutherford, NJ.

06/29/1964

Steve Zing was born in Lodi, NJ.

08/25/1964

Eerie Von was born in Lodi, NJ.

02/19/1965

John Christ was born in MD.

07/20/1967

London May was born in Baltimore, MD.

06/__/1973

Glenn Danzig graduated from Lodi High School.

03/__/1981

The Misfits recorded the majority of
"Archangel," a song Danzig had written for Dave Vanian of The Damned. Vanian
was never able to join them to record the vocals, so the recording was shelved.

08/__/1981

Danzig and Eerie Von met through Doyle of The Misfits. Eerie often served
as The Misfits' photographer.

10/31/1981

Danzig and Al Pike met at The Misfits' show at National Ukrainian Home in
New York, NY.

02/28/1982

Danzig played Al Pike The Misfits' demo version of "Archangel" before The
Misfits' show at 9:30 Club in Washington, DC.

06/__/1982

Eerie Von and Steve Zing graduated from Lodi High School.

__/__/1983

Danzig wrote "The Shift" and "The Howl" while in The Misfits.
Danzig has also said that he wrote "All Murder, All Guts, All Fun" and
"He-Who-Can-Not-Be-Named" while in The Misfits.

03/__/1983

In an interview with "Flesh And Bones", Danzig talked about his plans to do
another solo project: "I'm going to work on something new in a few months and
this time I'll have a hand in producing, which I didn't have last time... The
new record will actually have a band on it - Al [Pike] from Reagan Youth..."
This project ended up becoming Samhain.

07/__/1983

The Misfits entered Fox Studio to finish recording and mixing the Earth A.D./Wolfs Blood tracks. Future Samhain member Steve Zing, and producer Spot,
were present in the studio. Danzig donated two songs, "Bloodfeast" and "Death
Comes Ripping," which he had originally written for Samhain.

08/__/1983

Danzig flew down to Washington, DC to rehearse with Brian Baker and Lyle
Preslar of Minor Threat, hoping to form a new super-group
called Samhain.
They brought in Graham McColluch on bass and Jeff Nelson (also of Minor
Threat) to play drums.

08/__/1983

Danzig and Al Pike began re-recording The Misfits'
version of "Archangel."
At the time, the band was not yet known as Samhain.

09/__/1983

Danzig, Eerie, and Craig Richardson (then known as C.A. Richie of
Rosemary's Babies) began rehearsing together as Samhain with Eerie on drums
and Craig on guitar.

09/__/1983

Danzig returned to Washington for a second rehearsal with Brian and Lyle,
who also brought along Eric Zelsder on drums. Danzig brought Steve Zing. After
this second session, Danzig gave up on the super-group idea and Brian, Lyle,
Graham, and Eric later joined Tesco Vee in The Meatmen. Al decided not to
join Samhain, devoting his time instead to his fanzine, "Straight Edge
Magazine."

10/__/1983

Steve Zing officially joined Samhain as the drummer after Danzig and Eerie
decided Eerie should switch to bass.

11/__/1983

Samhain began recording songs for
the Initium album at Reel Platinum in Lodi, NJ.

01/__/1984

Danzig began teaching Eerie how to play bass and Eerie started overlaying
his bass tracks on the songs for Initium. Lyle Preslar came up from
Washington, DC to rehearse with the band.

02/__/1984

Lyle came up for three more rehearsals with the band. He laid down lead
guitar tracks on "Black Dream," "Macabre," "Horror Biz," and "The Shift."
Pete Marshall (who Steve Zing had recently met at Bergen Community College)
was at one of those sessions and let Lyle Preslar borrow his Fender Pro
Reverb guitar amplifier.

03/31/1984

Samhain's first show took place at The Ritz in New York City. Lyle
Preslar played guitar on all songs and Danzig played additional guitar on "Macabre"
and "Archangel." This
was the last time Lyle was involved with the band. The next Samhain show did
not occur until the 2 week mini-tour of the midwest in the fall.

06/23/1984

Mourning Noise, featuring Steve Zing and Pete Marshall, played its final
show at The Ritz in New York City, opening for Kraut. By this time, Pete was
also a member of Samhain and had been nicknamed "Damien" by Danzig.

Samhain did the final show of the second leg of the "Season Of The Dead"
tour at the Smart Bar, downstairs from the Hanoi Rocks show at Cabaret Metro.
It was a special birthday show for Hanoi Rocks' drummer Razzle, who died a
week later. After the show, Steve Zing and Joseph Jay (Samhain's
roadie/driver/merchandise man) took the People's Express airplane back to New
York City.

06/__/1985

During the summer of 1985, Danzig purchased a Yamaha DX-7 synthesizer. In
addition to the keyboards, he used it to generate the chimes, gongs, and
other unusual instruments heard on November-Coming-Fire. He also used it
later on the first Danzig album.

06/__/1985

London May travelled to New Jersey to audition for Samhain. After being
accepted into the band as the new drummer, he returned home to Baltimore to
join his previous band The Reptile House for a five week tour. He moved to
Lodi the following month and was nicknamed "Lunch Monkey" by the other
members of Samhain.

08/__/1985

Samhain finished recording Samhain III November-Coming-Fire.

08/24/1985

Contrary to rumors, no members of Samhain joined Metallica on stage for
their cover of "London Dungeon." Metallica's friend Rich Burch sang on this
song, although it was later claimed that Danzig was on stage as well.

03/02/1986

At the beginning of the Toronto show, London suffered an asthma attack
due to the smoke generated by a fog machine.

03/28/1986

The Samhain set at Caberet Voltaire in Houstin, TX was cancelled after
only a few songs.

__/__/1986

Sometime in the spring of 1986, Caroline Records released special colored
vinyl editions of The Misfits' Die, Die My Darling
and all three Samhain albums.

07/14/1986

Samhain performed for the last time at the New Music Seminar, held at The
Ritz in New York, NY. Rick Rubin was in the audience and promised to sign the
band to his label, Def American. A few weeks later, Damien was
kicked out of the band after Rubin suggested that the band should have a more
metallic sound. For the next six months, the band rehearsed in New York City
as a three piece, as numerous guitarists auditioned and were refused. James
Hetfield and Kirk Hammett of Metallica
often joined them at rehearsals.

Samhain entered Reel Platinum to record songs for the
then-titled Samhain IV album.
Several of the songs from this session were re-recorded for the
first Danzig album.

01/__/1987

John Christ auditioned for the first time.

02/02/1987

John Christ joined the band after his second audition.

02/__/1987

At one of the few Samhain rehearsals featuring both John Christ and
London May, the band recorded "Twist Of Cain," "Trouble," "Possession," and
"When Death Had No Name" on a two-track tape. Later this month, Eerie
informed London that he was no longer in the band. Rick Rubin, who had
promised Danzig that he could have any drummer, had invited Chuck Biscuits to
New York to rehearse with the band. Philthy Phil from Motorhead would have
been Danzig's other choice, had Chuck not been available.

03/__/1987

In order to avoid a lawsuit over royalty disagreements, Danzig changed the
name of the band to Danzig.

06/__/1987

In order to further avoid a legal dispute, Danzig re-recorded and remixed
the Unholy Passion EP to remove Damien's
guitar tracks from the recording.

__/__/1990

While the band Danzig was recording their second album, Danzig used some
studio time to finish some Samhain tracks. Chuck Biscuits of Danzig played
drums on one track.

01/01/1995

As part of a lawsuit settlement involving The Misfits, Plan 9 Records,
Glenn Danzig, and Caroline Records, all Samhain releases by
Caroline Records were discontinued.
In 2000, Samhain released a box set on E-magine records, with individual
CDs released the following year.

09/__/1999

Glenn Danzig announced that Samhain would reform for a short tour with
Danzig in November 1999. Damien was originally scheduled to join the band,
but chose to tour with Iggy Pop instead. Danzig's guitarist, Todd Youth,
began rehearsing for Samhain shows as many as three months before the tour
finally happened.